Claire's Custom Green Rental Kitchen

When I moved in, I couldn't stand the bare white walls -- they made the kitchen look even smaller. So even though it's a rental, I spent days painting and then sponging it with different shades of green (with my landlord's permission, of course). I've lived here for three years now, and every time I go in the kitchen, I smile, so it was totally worth the effort.

Describe a challenge you've overcome or a smart resource you've found for your kitchen.

The kitchen hardly has any counter space, and the existing counter space is a little too short. My boyfriend is a furniture maker, and when he moved in, he built a custom cabinet of sorts to hold the microwave and toaster oven and also function as a counter. It's made all the difference!

What's your favorite meal to cook here?

Even though the kitchen is tiny, I throw dinner parties all the time. For the past two years, I've even hosted Thanksgiving dinner here, inviting all my friends who, like me, are away from home for the holiday. That's probably my favorite meal because it's great to open up my home for hours and hours of feasting and show what this tiny kitchen can do.

More posts in this series

Small Cool Kitchens 2012

Faith is executive editor of The Kitchn and author of three cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning The Kitchn Cookbook, coauthored with Sara Kate Gillingham, as well as Bakeless Sweets. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband Mike.